Deck 1: Organizational Behavior: The Quest for People-Centered Organizations and Ethical Conduct

Question 1

Organizations are a social invention helping us to achieve things collectively that we could not achieve alone.

Answer 1

True
Explanation: Organizations are a social invention helping us to achieve things collectively that we could not achieve alone.

Question 2

According to McGregor's Theory X, people tend to procrastinate and loaf whenever they can.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: One of the assumptions of McGregor's Theory X is that most people must be coerced and threatened with punishment before they will work. It assumed that most people actually prefer to be directed. They tend to avoid responsibility and exhibit little ambition.

Question 3

The ultimate goal of Six Sigma is to come within six standard deviations of perfection.

Answer 3

True
Explanation: Six Sigma expresses a way of thinking about business a problem that encourages precision and predictability. The "sigma" refers to the Greek letter, which in statistics is used to measure how far something deviates from perfection. The "six" comes from the goal to be no more than six standard deviations away from that perfect measure.

Question 4

Reanalysis of the original Hawthorne data explained that high-quality raw materials were responsible for high output in the relay assembly test room experiments.

Question 5

OB is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to better understanding and managing people at work.

Question 6

Organizational behavior is a specific job category in most organizations.

Question 7

The three levels of OB analysis are individual, business, and strategic.

Question 8

Writer Elton Mayo advised managers to attend to employees' emotional needs in his 1933 classic The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization.

Question 9

Power can be provided to employees via centralization.

Question 10

According to McGregor's Theory Y, managers could accomplish more by believing that employees require close direction when they are working.

Question 11

Organizational behavior is a vertical discipline functioning in the human resource realm.

Question 12

OB knowledge is derived exclusively from organization theory.

Question 13

People-centered practices are associated with higher profits and lower employee turnover.

Question 14

According to McGregor's Theory X, employees must be coerced and threatened with punishment before they will work.

Question 15

According to McGregor's Theory Y, the typical employee can learn to accept and seek responsibility.

Question 16

Trust can be built in organizations through the sharing of critical information.

Question 17

Legalization of union-management collective bargaining helped foster the human relations movement.

Question 18

Mary Parker Follett urged managers to demand job performance from employees instead of merely attempting to motivate them.

Question 19

Providing training for employees leads to lower employee turnover.

Question 20

Confidence, self-control, self-direction, imagination, and creativity are the key dimensions of McGregor's Theory X.

Question 21

Total quality management is in the corporate DNA today thanks in large part to the pioneering work of Douglas McGregor.

Question 22

Deming called for emphasis on numerical quotas rather than on continuous process improvements.

Question 23

According to W. Edwards Deming, when things go wrong, there is roughly a 40% chance that the system is at fault and about a 60% chance that the individual employee is at fault.

Question 24

Managers with high levels of skill mastery tend to have better subunit performance and employee morale than managers with lower levels of skill mastery.

Question 25

Social media innovations have enabled the growing importance of usergenerated content.

Question 26

Positive social interactions can have favorable impacts on cardiovascular health and the immune system.

Question 27

W. Edwards Deming believed that statistical analysis is required to uncover system failures.

Question 28

Good management requires a clear purpose and a bias toward action.

Question 29

E-commerce involves buying and selling goods and services over the internet.

Question 30

Total quality management (TQM) is defined as continuous, customer-centered, employee-driven improvement.

Question 31

According to Wilson's managerial skills research, an effective manager controls details by being overbearing.

Question 32

Trust, mutual respect, teamwork, and cooperative effort are dimensions of human capital.

Question 33

According to the Wilson managerial skills research, effective female and male managers have significantly different skill profiles.

Question 34

E-business has evolved into e-commerce i.e. using the Internet to facilitate every aspect of running a business, including the management of virtual teams.

Question 35

Social capital is productive potential resulting from strong relationships, goodwill, trust, and cooperative effort.

Question 36

In successful improvement programs, total quality management principles are embedded in the organization's culture.

Question 37

Human capital is the productive potential of an individual's knowledge and actions.

Question 38

Total quality management need not be necessarily employee driven.

Question 39

Henry Mintzberg observed that managers typically devote large blocks of time to planning.

Question 40

The Wilson managerial skills research yields the lesson that dealing effectively with people is what management is all about.

Question 41

Which of the following people-centered practices is carried out to build a "we" feeling?

A)Job security
B)Careful hiring
C)Less emphasis on status
D)Lots of training
E)Generous pay for performance

Question 42

A successful 21^st century manager uses formal authority as the primary source of influence.

Question 43

Codes of ethics will have a positive impact if they are not enforced with strict penalties for noncompliance.

Question 44

A successful 21^st century manager seeks to facilitate change.

Question 45

The three basic levels of analysis in organizational behavior are:

A)psychological, sociological, and statistical.
B)emotional, physical, and cognitive.
C)functional, business, and strategic.
D)individual, group, and organizational.
E)group, business, and environmental.

Question 46

Which of the following people-centered practices is achieved through the sharing of critical information?

A)Job security
B)Trust building
C)Less emphasis on status
D)Lots of training
E)Generous pay for performance

Question 47

A field study is a statistical pooling technique allowing behavioral scientists to draw general conclusions about certain variables from many different studies.

Question 48

The highest level of Carroll's global social responsibility pyramid is occupied by ethical responsibility.

Question 49

The successful 21^st century manager shares access to power and key information.

Question 50

The primary role of a 21^st century manager is to give orders and control action.

Question 51

In Carroll's global corporate social responsibility pyramid, philanthropic responsibility states that one should do what is desired by global stakeholders.

Question 52

People-centered management practices are associated with:

A)higher profits.
B)higher turnover.
C)increased centralized decision making.
D)increased layoffs.
E)increased emphasis on hierarchical status.

Question 53

Managers of the future will be compensated based on time, effort, and rank.

Question 54

Which of the following is true about organizational behavior (OB)?

A)Accounting and finance students need not study OB.
B)OB teaches employees how to survive in an organization, but not how to thrive in it.
C)The three basic levels of analysis in organizational behavior are functional, business, and strategic.
D)OB deals with how people react outside organizations.
E)OB is both research and application oriented.

Question 55

Employers are generally lax when it comes to checking references, credentials, transcripts, and other information on applicant résumés.

Question 56

In Carroll's global corporate social responsibility pyramid, legal responsibility states that one should do what is expected by global stakeholders.

Question 57

Corporate officers in the U.S. became subject to high accountability standards and harsh criminal penalties under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Question 58

An organization's ethical climate can be improved by developing a meaningful code of ethics.

Question 59

Case studies yield very generalizable results.

Question 60

Due to the highly controlled nature of laboratory studies, generalizing the results to organizational management requires caution.

Question 61

Which of the following is defined as, "continuous, customer-centered, employee-driven improvement?"

A)Total quality management
B)Contingency approach
C)Open-systems perspective
D)Refreezing process
E)Organizational subculture

Question 62

As early as the 1920s, Mary Parker Follett:

A)argued for using the one-best way to perform tasks.
B)suggested that managers could accomplish more through others by viewing them as self-energized, committed, responsible, and creative beings.
C)advocated a "push" rather than "pull" strategy to improve employee performance.
D)focused on the importance of using high-quality raw material to increase productivity.
E)advised managers to motivate job performance instead of merely demanding it.

Question 63

Which of the following calls for using management techniques in a situationally appropriate manner instead of relying on "one best way"?

A)Theory Y
B)Six Sigma approach
C)Human relations movement
D)Contingency approach
E)Total quality management

Question 64

_____ is the process of working with and through others to achieve organizational objectives in an efficient and ethical manner.

A)Performance appraisal
B)Management
C)Human relations movement
D)Surface-level diversity
E)Globalization

Question 65

A common principle underlying various total quality management (TQM) programs is that one should:

A)trace defective items back to the individual responsible.
B)maintain a strong distinction between labor and management.
C)listen and learn from competitors.
D)not learn from customers.
E)do it right the first time to eliminate costly rework.

Question 66

_____ capital represents the productive potential of an individual's knowledge and actions.

A)Organizational
B)Relationship
C)Human
D)Structural
E)Social

Question 67

Which of the following is an assumption of McGregor's Theory X?

A)People generally become committed to organizational objectives if they are rewarded for doing so.
B)Work is a natural activity, like play or rest.
C)People are capable of self-direction and self-control if they are committed to objectives.
D)Most people dislike work and they avoid it when they can.
E)The typical employee can learn to accept and seek responsibility.

Question 68

According to Clark Wilson, an effective manager:

A)does not rely on schedules and deadlines to keep things moving.
B)makes unilateral decisions to ensure objectives are met.
C)controls details by being overbearing.
D)assigns duties to others while maintaining goal clarity and commitment.
E)applies intense pressure for goal accomplishment.

Question 69

Which of the following theories was formulated to help managers break with the negative tradition of how they perceived employees?

A)Theory A
B)Theory W
C)Theory X
D)Theory Y
E)Theory Z

Question 70

According to academics and managers, which of the following had a powerful effect on job performance that helped the human relations movement gather momentum through the 1950s?

A)Fear of unemployment during the Great Depression
B)Individual needs
C)High-quality raw materials
D)Scientific principles
E)Managerial discipline

Question 71

_____ capital represents the productive potential resulting from strong relationships, goodwill, trust, and cooperative effort.

A)Organizational
B)Relationship
C)Human
D)Structural
E)Social

Question 72

_____ refers to using the Internet to facilitate every aspect of running a business.

A)Virtual organization
B)E-business
C)E-mail
D)Virtual team
E)E-commerce

Question 73

According to the principles of total quality management (TQM), improvement is _____ driven.

A)stakeholder
B)management
C)leader
D)employee
E)industry

Question 74

_____ is based on pessimistic and negative assumptions about human nature.

A)Theory A
B)Theory W
C)Theory X
D)Theory Y
E)Theory Z

Question 75

Which of the following is an assumption of McGregor's Theory Y?

A)The typical person has imagination and creativity.
B)Most people dislike work.
C)Most people must be coerced and threatened with punishment before they will work.
D)Most people actually prefer to be directed.
E)People require close direction when they are working.

Question 76

Intel spends millions of dollars each year to encourage education in math and science by holding tough contests with scholarships. This policy:

A)builds human capital.
B)improves the productive potential of strong, trusting, and cooperative relationships.
C)increases employee turnover.
D)reflects a Theory X view of human nature.
E)aims to promote philanthropy.

Question 77

Which of the following did W. Edwards Deming call for, regarding the human side of development?

A)Emphasis on individual responsibility
B)Elimination of freedom to ask questions
C)Elimination of barriers to good workmanship
D)Emphasis on numerical quotas
E)Order giving and punishment

Question 78

According to W. Edwards Deming, _____ is required to uncover system failures.

A)a fearful work environment
B)new leadership
C)an interview with the attending supervisor
D)an interview with the employee responsible
E)statistical analysis

Question 79

According to W. Edwards Deming, when things go wrong, there is roughly a(n) ______ % chance the system (e.g., management, machinery, or rules) is at fault and about a(n) _____ % chance the individual employee is at fault.

A)80, 20
B)15, 85
C)75, 25
D)85, 15
E)95, 05

Question 80

The book, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, that advised managers to attend to employees' emotional needs, was written by _____.

A)Douglas McGregor
B)Elton Mayo
C)W. Edwards Deming
D)Henry Mintzberg
E)Mary Parker Follett